1 . A trip to the capital wouldn't be complete without seeing the following attractions in London.
The London Eye (Tickets from £24.50)
Explore London from above on the London Eye. Your ticket includes a 30-minute flight with breathtaking views over London as well as an amazing 4D experience. Book ahead to save money and skip most of the queues with a fast-track entry ticket.
Tower of London (Tickets from £25)
Hear the many stories of the Tower of London on a Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) tour. See the famous Crown Jewels, the White Tower and find out what it was like to be a prisoner in the Tower of London.
Kidzania London (Tickets from £18.50)
Test out a range of professions and activities including journalism, animal care, cabin crew and tour guiding at KidZania London. Work to earn KidZos and save them for next time or spend them in the Airport Shop. Great for kids to learn and have fun.
The Royal Observatory Greenwich (Tickets from £16)
Visit the home of time and explore outer space at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. See and stand astride the Prime Meridian line (子午线), the reference point for Greenwich Mean Time. Learn about the history of longitude (经线), touch a piece of rock from outer space, and enjoy amazing views over London.
Coronavirus information: London is currently subject to a four-week national lockdown from 5 November, which means attractions are temporarily closed. You can still book tickets in advance ready for when they reopen with social distancing and other safety measures in place. Cycle or walk to these attractions where possible.
1. What can you do when visiting the London Eye?| A．Spend £24.50 at the most. |
| B．Buy the ticket on your arrival. |
| C．Get a special entry ticket to save time. |
| D．Pay extra money to enjoy the 30-minute flight. |
| A．It combines learning with entertainment. |
| B．It enables visitors to have a good view of London. |
| C．It offers visitors an experience of being a prisoner. |
| D．It is not influenced during the four-week lockdown. |
| A．The London Eye. | B．Tower of London. |
| C．Kidzania London. | D．The Royal Observatory Greenwich |
2 . Industry must speed up investment in new technologies that allow manufacture（大量制造）of materials using renewable electricity if net zero emission（排放）targets are to be met, research led by the University of Leeds warns.
Ensuring that no electricity is produced from fossil fuels by 2050 is vital for achieving net zero. However, its effect will be limited if industry cannot use this electricity. Steel manufacturing alone accounts for a tenth of all carbon dioxide（CO2）emission in industrialised countries but latest estimates suggest new technologies to manufacture steel using electricity will not become fully operational until at least 2040.
The lead author of the study, Dr Alan Grainger, from the University of Leeds School of Geography, said, “Delays in replacing existing steel manufacturing capacity represent a crucial ‘lock in’ constraint（约束）on achieving net zero.” Humanity’s great dependence on steel, which accounts for 94% of all metal production, is a huge blockage that cannot be ignored. The UK Net Zero Strategy, published last week, recognizes this problem,but lacks detail on how to deal with it.
Governments should strengthen international carbon reporting standards for energy-intensive industries, the paper says, so that total levels of CO2 production during the manufacture and lifetime of materials can be measured more obviously in assessing progress towards national net zero targets. The carbon price also needs to rise to make it economically viable（可行的）to introduce new manufacturing technologies with low CO2 emission.
1. What is the author’s purpose of writing paragraph 1?| A．To give a warning to industry. |
| B．To show the amount of CO2 emission. |
| C．To attract investment for the research. |
| D．To warn industry not to use electricity. |
| A．Stopping steel manufacture. | B．Using less electricity from fossil fuels. |
| C．Electricity from green energy. | D．Using technical instruments. |
| A．Policy. | B．Influence. | C．Advantage. | D．Barrier. |
| A．Industry must prepare for green electricity |
| B．Industry must achieve net zero emission target |
| C．Industry must speed up investment in electricity |
| D．Governments should strengthen carbon standards |
3 . Queen Elizabeth II’s face is on every note and coin in the United Kingdom, but still little is known about how much money she has personally, how she gets it and who stands to inherit (继承) it.
What we do know from public records is that the Queen receives at least $20 million in annual income through her private estate, and another 100 million dollars from the UK government each year.
The first thing to understand is that the Queen’s income comes from both public and private possessions. A large amount of it comes from something called the Sovereign Grant. Here’s how that works.
In the 1700s, the monarchy (王室) handed over income from land to the government known as the Crown Estate. Each year the government pays a percentage of the profits made on those possessions back to the monarchy. That annual income is known as the Sovereign Grant. Last year it totaled more than $107 million. And it is used to fund the Queen’s official duties and maintain royal residences like Buckingham Palace.
But even if we can’t identify her exact worth, the royal finances are looking healthy as the Queen celebrates her 70th Queen Ceremony. The Sunday Times Rich List estimated the Queen’s net worth is $466 million, up $6.2 million dollars from last year. And while the Duchy of Lancaster saw UK income drop during the pandemic, according to its financial records, the Queen’s income has been turning upwards over the past decade.
Anyway, the monarchy is a private family, and they are unlikely to share any details of their wealth with the British public, and that probably won’t change anytime soon.
1. How does the Queen get her income?| A．From the Crown Estate. | B．From the Sovereign Grant. |
| C．From the monarchy and the government. | D．From the government and private possessions. |
| A．How the Queen’s income is calculated. |
| B．How the monarchy cooperates with the government. |
| C．How the Sovereign Grant works and what the money is used for. |
| D．How the monarchy gets paid and what the Queen’s official duties are. |
| A．It can be exactly identified. | B．It decreases during the pandemic. |
| C．It is more than that from last year. | D．It is more than that of the UK government. |
| A．Health. | B．History. | C．Education. | D．Economy. |
4 . It is a well-known fact that plastic bottles, which take hundreds of years to rot, are harmful to our environment. However, efforts by environmentalists to encourage consumers to switch to alternatives, like water fountains or reusable bottles, have not been very effective. The U.S. alone uses over 50 million plastic bottles annually, 80% of which end up in landfills.
To try to stop that, Rodrigo García González, Pierre Paslier and Guillaume Couche from the Imperial College London have been working on a revolutionary solution — water wrapped inside an eatable container made mostly from seaweed. All the customer has to do to relieve his/her thirst is pop the entire drop into the mouth.
The inventors, who have been working on the Ooho bubble since 2014, use a simple two-step cooking process called spherification (球化) to create the delicate container. They begin by dipping a frozen ball of water or juice into a chemical solution (溶液). This helps form a layer around the liquid. The ball is then absorbed in a solution made from seaweed extract. This creates a second layer, helping strengthen the structure so that the water or juice does not leak. In addition to saving our environment, the biodegradable (可降解的) packaging costs just two cents each, making it cheaper to produce than plastic.
After three years of perfecting the design, the inventors, who recently raised over 1 million USD from a financial activity, are ready to bring the Ooho bubble to local market. However, there are a few challenges that still need to be overcome before the product’s launch. In addition to getting accustomed to the taste of the covering, each eatable container contains just a mouthful of water, requiring consumers to drink multiple bubbles to relieve their thirst. There is also the issue of finding an eco-friendly packaging to transport the bubbles so that they remain clean and do not burst. Hopefully, the inventors will find ways to handle the issues so that we can reduce, or perhaps even remove, plastic bottles.
1. Why was the Ooho bubble created?| A．To test a newly-designed material. | B．To change consumers’ drinking habit. |
| C．To reduce pollution caused by plastic. | D．To take a share of drinking water industry. |
| A．Solve some specific problems of the product. | B．Collect more money to expand production. |
| C．Distribute the Ooho bubble to global market. | D．Advertise the advantages of the Ooho bubble. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Doubtful. | C．Confident. | D．Opposed. |
| A．Scientists Work out a New Kind of Water |
| B．Plastic Bottles Will Be Replaced by the Ooho Bubble |
| C．Environmental Pollution is Expected to Be Solved |
| D．The Ooho Bubble Aims to Remove Plastic Bottles |
5 . Music is a language which speaks to everyone-from the day we are born we hear music of some kind of our lives. But there are as many different kinds of music as there are different languages, and it is impossible to describe them all. Here are just a few well-known types.
Classical music is serious Western European music from the Middle Ages to the present (1500 to today) and it was often written for a large orchestra, or for a small group of players. Many instruments can be used. A lot of music was also written to be sung-as opera. Classical music is very popular and schools often teach this type of music.
Jazz developed in the Southern United States at the beginning of last century. The black people of these states, who were originally slaves from Africa, had their own rhythms. Jazz brought classical music and African rhythms together.
Blues was originally black country music from the Southern United States at the beginning of last century. It is slow, usually sad music which is often sung by one person with a guitar.
Rhythm and Blues (R&B) developed from the blues in America in the 1940s. It became faster and more complex and used more instruments such as saxophones (萨克斯管) , guitars, pianos, drums. The music was often about city life and white musicians started playing it as well.
Musicians in the 1950s developed rock and roll from Rhythm and Blues and it became popular with young people. It spread to Europe in the 1960s and is now known in most countries. A lot of pop music comes from rock and roll.
Pop music developed from rock and roll in America and Britain in the 1960s and is now in every country. The name is used for most commercial (商业的) music, which we can buy on records and hear on “pop radio”. It is usually played by groups who often use electronic instruments and make videos to go with their records.
1. Which of the following started in the Southern United States?| A．Rhythm and Blues. | B．Jazz. | C．Rock and roll. | D．Pop music. |
| A．In the 1950s. | B．In the 1940s. | C．In the 1960s. | D．In the 1970s. |
| A．By people and events. | B．By time and explanations. |
| C．By questions and events. | D．By analysis and reasons. |
| A．How music became popular. |
| B．The importance of music. |
| C．Music is an international language. |
| D．Six types of music and their history. |
6 . Some students get so nervous before a test. They do poorly even if they know the material. Sian Beilock, a professor at the University of Chicago in Illinois, has studied these highly anxious test-takers. The students start worrying about the results. And when they worry, it actually uses up attention and memory resources (资源).
Professor Beilock and another researcher, Gerardo Ramirez, have developed a possible solution. Just before an exam, highly anxious test-takers spend ten minutes writing about their worries about the test.
The researchers tested the idea on a group of twenty anxious college students. They gave them two short maths tests. After the first one, they asked the students to either sit quietly or write about their feelings about the upcoming second test.
Professor Beilock says those who sat quietly scored an average of 12% worse on the second test. But the students who had written about their fears improved their performance by an average of 5%. Next, the researchers used younger students in a biology class. They told them before final exams either to write about their feelings or to think about things unrelated to the test. Professor Beilock says highly anxious students who did the writing got an average grade of B+, compared to a B- for those who did not.
“What we showed is that for students who are highly test-anxious, who’d done our writing intervention (干预), all of a sudden there was no relationship between test anxiety and performance. They were performing just as well as their classmates who don’t normally get nervous in these tests.”
But what if students do not have a chance to write about their fears immediately before an exam? Professor Beilock says students can try it themselves at home or in the library and still improve their performance.
1. What may the students start worrying about before an exam?| A．Whether they can pass the exams. |
| B．What other students do during the test. |
| C．Whether they have remembered the materials. |
| D．What kind of problems they will meet on the test paper. |
| A．Asking the students to think nothing of the test. |
| B．Asking the students to focus on the test. |
| C．Asking the students to sit quietly before the test. |
| D．Asking the students to write about their worries before the test. |
| A．became less nervous before the test. |
| B．were better at controlling their feelings. |
| C．did worse than those who wrote about their feelings. |
| D．did better than those who took two tests. |
| A．Writing about worries before an exam can work a bit. |
| B．Studying in the library can improve students’ performance. |
| C．Students can only write about worries right before an exam. |
| D．It doesn’t matter where to write about worries before an exam. |
A family dinner is an important tradition
Can’t they admit that the
Eating out is a good choice and it has nothing to do with loss of traditions. We still have the dinner with the same people, just in a different place. The occasion is more
In my opinion, what or where we eat on Spring Festival Eve really
Driverless buses are
Cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen have unmanned buses in operation on open roads. It is estimated
In October 2020, the Longzhou One, the minibus started trial operations in Suzhou, offering free services to the citizens. It is equipped
A high-speed 5G network and smart connected-devices allow the driverless buses to receive information
With the combination of 5G, navigation satellites, AI, big data and other technologies, urban transportation is gradually getting ultramodern,
9 . Wherever we go, we are surrounded by history. Across the globe, cultural heritage is passed down through the generations. It is in the buildings and structures around us. It is in the arts and artifacts (手工艺品) we treasure. It lives in the languages we speak and the stories we tell. But today, it is under attack as never before. Not only are the damages of time threatening our cultural heritage, but climate change, globalization and tourism are all exacting a heavy price. Technology is now the most important weapon in the battle. Here’s how technology is preserving our cultural heritage.
As you can imagine, creating the replicas (复制品) by 2D images is extremely time-consuming. Increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms (算法) allow millions of images to be stored in a matter of hours. AI will also make restoration and preservation of existing cultural heritage far easier and better than previous methods.
Virtual reality (VR) technology will play a leading role in preserving our cultural heritage in the coming years. Many of the most important sites and architecture are easily damaged. Human interaction with these locations is doing a great deal of harm. Wastes pile up everywhere, causing serious problems. As more cultural heritage sites and objects are digitally mapped and recorded, VR technology will increasingly become the way that people experience them. We’ll all finally be able to walk through places, look at (and touch) artifacts and works of art without ever seeing them with our own eyes.
Finally, our cultural heritage will be preserved by technology. Efforts in research, data sharing and project work will help promote and preserve the cultural heritage of countries all across the world.
1. What does the underlined word “exacting” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．demanding | B．cutting | C．receiving | D．paying |
| A．It makes preservation safer. | B．It produces 2D images. |
| C．It makes restoration easier. | D．It creates replicas in seconds. |
| A．By reducing human impact on the site. |
| B．By recycling huge amounts of waste. |
| C．By forbidding visitors from touching artifacts. |
| D．By educating people about the sites’ importance. |
| A．Ignoring. | B．Supportive. | C．Objective. | D．Disagreeing. |
10 . A thief dropped a winning lottery ticket (彩票) at the scene of his crime, but he has been given a lesson in
The robbery happened when Professor Sabbatucci was changing a tyre on a highway. Another motorist, who stopped “to
The next day, the professor saw the lottery
The professor received hundreds of
The robber gave back the
| A．friendship | B．honesty | C．bravery | D．adventure |
| A．held out | B．took out | C．made up | D．picked up |
| A．crime | B．lecture | C．money | D．evidence |
| A．explore | B．rest | C．watch | D．help |
| A．stolen | B．dropped | C．forgotten | D．damaged |
| A．results | B．story | C．loss | D．sales |
| A．presented | B．took | C．donated | D．shared |
| A．joking | B．saying | C．wondering | D．replying |
| A．number | B．case | C．win | D．receipt |
| A．notes | B．emails | C．letters | D．calls |
| A．trick | B．find | C．lead | D．draw |
| A．recognised | B．reminded | C．recorded | D．recovered |
| A．car | B．suitcase | C．package | D．check |
| A．explain | B．blame | C．believe | D．realise |
| A．deal | B．promise | C．payment | D．offer |
